Study Links Electronic Health Records to Improved Quality in Primary Care Practices.

(From AScribe)

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Routine use of electronic health records may improve the quality of care provided in community-based primary care practices more than other common strategies intended to raise the quality of medical care, according to a new study by RAND Corporation researchers.

Studying 305 groups of primary care physicians in Massachusetts, researchers found that practices that used multifunctional electronic health records were more likely to deliver better care for diabetes and provide certain health screenings than those that did not.

While quality differences discovered in the study were modest in size, the study is one of the first to demonstrate a link between use of electronic health records in community-based medical practices and higher quality care. The findings are published in the …